Of cricket hat-tricks, Federer twin strikes and ceasefire in chess

Mike Whitney, after becoming a father of triplets, had once joked: “I’m the only bowler in history to have claimed a hat-trick with two balls!”

The former left-arm Australian paceman’s light-hearted comment had a touch of realism, in a different connotation, of course, in a recent IPL match. Forty-two-year-old Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner Pravin Tambe took a hat-trick off two balls (Manish Pandey was stumped off a wide ball).

A couple of days later, Mirka and Roger Federer came up with their two beautiful strikes: twin sons after two daughters in 2009. The duo had played together for Switzerland in Hopman Cup. Wonder if they had ever converted double match-points so amazingly.

But Federer’s profuse apology to his fans, Madrid organizers and tennis in general for pulling out of the clay 1000 event due to the ‘expectancy level’ should be understood better.

Here is a guy who respects the game and feels that he has certain obligations towards it. He realizes that the fans and sponsors invest their time and money on him. So, he can’t shortchange them.

If two rival grandmasters and elite-level players emulate Federer in a thought process, and end the practice of shameless, agreed and spineless draws with plenty of playing possibilities available, the 64-square game could attract better sponsorship. But now, even the great rematch between Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand failed to attract bids within the deadline.

Chess was never the darling of sponsors due to its scholarly nature; and it never will. But when you add scholarly opening lines and draws, it becomes a disastrous combination deserving neither a half point nor any empathy.

Of course, unlike other games, where the draw is obtained due to lack of time, the game of chess can produce real equality. However, the agreed draw is a clear misuse of privileges. Sponsors donate (donate is the correct word. For the Chennai match, Jayalalithaa decided to donate from the taxpayers’ pocket) in chess to see a battle on the board, not for a contrived ‘un-molestation’ of the pieces!

There is one simple, and most effective way to sort out this problem. The players who opt for agreed draws (of course, barring material shortage, three-fold repetition and only kings on the board) should feel the pinch monetarily. I advocate a 10 per cent cut from the respective players’ prize money and appearance money per game for those who indulge in such intellectual cowardice and continue to put the future of the game in jeopardy.

The 2012 Moscow World ch’ship: Anand and Gelfand played a total of 10 draws in classical chess. At least eight of them were agreed ones.

But when Magnus Carlsen and Anand played out seven draws in last year’s match, only two of them were agreed. Two came via repetition; and the other three involved gruelling fights on the board.

Are sponsors and organizers waiting for Garry Kasparov’s coronation as Fide president? Or have they realized that Anand will be defensively better prepared and Magnus even cagier – the sum total of which would lead to short, agreed draws?

Hope both Anand and Magnus have aggressive plans and are equipped with anti-virus for draws whenever they sit across the board for another much-anticipated clash.

PS: It’s not surprising that IPL & T20 experts gave Man of the Match award to Tambe’s trick and not to Watson’s performance. The Aussie took three top-order wickets for 21 runs; and had scored 31 off 20 balls earlier. In T20 and IPL, ‘turning point’ performance and drama is given more importance rather then other real valuable efforts.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Comments on this post are closed now

Author

Amit Karmarkar is sports editor at The Times of India in Pune. He started writing for a Marathi fortnightly and a newspaper at the age of 17 (in 1990). From being a mad fan of Sunil Gavaskar and John McEnroe, he has turned a bit cynical towards cricket, thanks to a barrage of insignificant matches, BCCI politicians and "source" stories.

Amit Karmarkar is sports editor at The Times of India in Pune. He started writing for a Marathi fortnightly and a newspaper at the age of 17 (in 1990). From. . .